Lok Bhalai Party stages dharna against illegal human trafficking

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007, 0:07 [IST]

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Jalandhar, Nov 14 (UNI) Senior leaders of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) today staged a dharna by skipping a meal in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here and celebrated Children's Day as 'Dukh Divas' as a protest.

They were protesting against the indifferent attitude of the ruling SAD-BJP combine and the Congress towards those youths of Punjab, who were either languishing in foreign jails or had died in a bid to reach foreign shores illegally through unscrupluous travel agents, LBP president BS Ramoowalia, who was not present at the dharna, however, has clarified in a press release that the party respects Children's Day which is being celebrated on the occasion of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday, but they chose to celebrate this occasion as 'Dukh Divas' because no political party has ever done anything for providing employment to the youth in the last 60 years of Independence.

He said that 35 lakh youth of the state are unemployed and they become an easy prey to travel agents who show them dollar dreams and cheat them of lakhs of rupees.

He said that such travel agents, in the last one decade had looted more than Rs 10,000 crore from nearly two lakh houses of the state by showing them dollar dreams and no government has done anything to provide justice to such youth.

He said that nearly 1800 unemployed youth of Punjab who went to foriegn lands in search of employment had died and more than 50,000 were languishing in foreign jails and forests.

He said that more than 300 unemployed and unmarried Punjabi girls, who had been sent by such agents to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Cyprus with a promise to get them a respectful job there were forced into prostitution.

He and other senior leaders of the party including Avtar Singh Mullanpuri and Ramandeep Singh Bharowal have called upon the present government of the state and Congress party not to sit mum on such a serious issue and instead do something positive to help the youth in their settlement.